Monday Links: This Cucumber Isn’t a Cucumber

Good morning and welcome to your first art fair-free day of the week! To celebrate we wrote up a link list.

Trompe l’oeil food painting. This cucumber is really a banana! [This is Colossal]

The BBC has created a text-based video game based on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is to celebrate the novel’s 40th anniversary. [BBC]

The New York Times picks up the Industry City beat; they interview several artists, including Tamara Zahaykevich of the Artist Studio Affordability Project, about the neverending search for reasonably priced studio space. Apparently, many artists who were at Industry City can’t find a good new studio. [The New York Times]

A United States weapons firm is in trouble with Italy’s Minister of Culture. ArmaLite, Inc. created a newspaper advertisement showing Michelangelo’s David holding a AR-50A1 rifle. Government officials claim this is illegal and offensive. (The Italian government holds copyright over David’s image.) [The Mirror]

New artist trend: Getting kicked off of Instagram, then getting back on again a day later. New York Magazine talks to artist Richard Prince about what that was like; he was kicked off for posting a picture of his Brooke Shields. [Vulture]

Maryam Banikarim talks to six Silicon Alley (1.0) founders now. They reflect on the what the web was like then and now. “Suits” are described as having been interested in “risk assessment”. [Fast Company]

Hirst has announced that he intends to write an autobiography, but admits he no longer remembers his twenties due to a life of excess. We’re surprised (and doubtful) that he’s only lost a decade. [The Guardian]

A screed on what makes good photojournalism: pictures that don’t just confirm or corroborate some existing piece of knowledge, but actually advance our understanding. The examples of “good” news photos and paintings are limited to leaders playing with kids, but it’s a good piece regardless. [The Philosophers’ Mail]